Crochet Top down Cable Beanie and Alternative to Faux Knit Brims

First, isn’t this yellow gorgeous? I admit I’m longing for spring/summer and this reminds me of sunny days.

In my last post on the blog I made an adult sized purple cabled beanie. I really enjoyed it on a few super cold and breezy days.

While I was making the purple beanie I thought I would prefer a top down cabled beanie. A ribbed brim takes forever (seemed like it anyway since I was eager to start cabling) plus not caring for cinched tops, it all seemed to make sense in my head.

As usual off to YouTube I go. I couldn’t find any top down cabled beanies that I cared for. Retraction: I did end up finding one but I was having a hard time following along. Also, there is another one on Ravelry I haven’t mastered yet so that’ll be in a later post.

Well now what do I do? Try to come up with my own, of course! So here’s what I know from the purple beanie: I was working with a total of 60 stitches. So I increased the yellow hat to 60 stitches followed by a round of 1 double crochet. Then I followed the regular cabled pattern as usual. Essentially they’re upside down cables but it worked and looked nice. So once I got as many cables as I wanted I needed to figure out how to get a faux knit look. I didn’t want to use the typical alternating of front post and back post. On YouTube though I found several tutorials that teach a method that looks just like if I had started with the brim. Here’s how it works: after slip stitching to join you chain up however wide you want the brim to be (I only did 5 chains since it was a child’s hat). Then you single crochet in the back loop only back down the chain. To anchor the brim you slip stitch into the next 2 stitches. Then work back up the back loops of the chain. It was much easier than I’m making it sound. The tutorial I recommend is from @tlyarncrafts.

So here’s what I think about working top down cables and the alternative faux knit brim: While top down works up much faster it’s worth taking the time to start with the brim and work your way up. It just has a more polished finish overall. The alternative faux knit brim looks kinda wonky so maybe I just need practice. Toni’s looked great in her video so I’m sure it’s me. Also the typical crown increasing just looks kinda odd. It gives the crown a kind of square shape that I like a lot less than a cinched crown I can halfway hide.

Lastly, here’s the details on the size, hook and yarn. I’d love to know if you have a favorite top down cabled hat pattern. Leave a comment.

Hat size: 12 months

Hook: I9/5.5mm

Yarn: Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn Sport in color Sun Yellow.

Britnee